Originally designed by Jack Kirby for the Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. serial in Strange Tales #135 (August 1965), the Helicarrier concept has survived multiple redesigns while rarely straying from its originally depicted role as a mobile headquarters of S.H.I.E.L.D. until recent years.

Contents

In the Marvel Universe context was proposed by Stark Industries as a political compromise as of the treaty in response to fears that any nation hosting the Directorate's main headquarters would be subject to attack by organizations such as HYDRA, with domestic political fallout sure to follow immediately thereafter.

Over twenty Helicarriers have been built over the decades, and at least two have been in simultaneous service in the last decade on several occasions. The following have been identified by name thus far in various Marvel Universe publications:

Behemoth - Specially designed Helicarrier commanded by Dum Dum Dugan for use against Godzilla in the 24-issue comic series Godzilla, King of the Monsters. First appearance was in issue #6 (January 1978). Destroyed by S.H.I.E.L.D. in an attempt to neutralize an attack by Amadeus Cho in Incredible Hercules #115.

Black Hawk - Destroyed in action against a HYDRA-Hand alliance of forces in Wolverine: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Further details on these events are depicted in The Irredeemable Ant-Man #1-2. Dark Reign: Elektra #1-5 gives more details, such as it having landed on a small Arkansas town.

Alpha - First mentioned by name in New Avengers #4. Also shown in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance as S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier UNN Alpha.

Odyssey - First shown and named in Captain America: Living Legend # 1.

Pericles - First shown and named in X-Force v.4 # 7. Already decommissioned and abandoned by S.H.I.E.L.D. under unrevealed circumstances in its first appearance, and taken over as a base by X-Force. The name has since been transferred to a "Battlecarrier", which first appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. # 1.

After Iron Man replaced Maria Hill as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., he designed a new class of Helicarrier whose red and gold design resembles the Iron Man Armor. Hill called it Helicarrier Gold, but Stark considered it The Helicarrier. This helicarrier was severely damaged and crashed by the Red Hulk, and subsequently commandeered by the Intelligencia (the covert operation of evil super-geniuses that employed the Red Hulk), who renamed it the "Hellcarrier".

The main S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier is subsequently disabled by a computer virus unleashed by a Skrull agent posing as Edwin Jarvis, as part of the Secret Invasion. It lands in the Bermuda Triangle. Most of the staff are revealed to be Skrulls. The craft is destroyed by Maria Hill.[2]

It is not yet known what criteria S.H.I.E.L.D. uses to name its Helicarriers.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s replacement agency, H.A.M.M.E.R., has decommissioned the surviving Helicarriers,[3] with three of them — including the Iliad and the Argonaut — being stolen by Nick Fury.[4] H.A.M.M.E.R. subsequently commissioned at least one new carrier to Norman Osborn's specifications, which was destroyed over Broxton, Oklahoma, during the Siege of Asgard.

According to intel gathered by Livewires, 5 Helicarriers are known to have been wrecked,[5] though this data is out of date as several more have been lost since.

In the epilogue of issue #25 of New Avengers, circa the year 1968, Howard Stark (father of Tony Stark, aka Iron Man), is seen giving Colonel Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. the hard sell of his newly designed Hellicarrier.[7]

The Ultimate Universe deals with Helicarriers differently. Whereas on Marvel's Earth-616, it is implied that S.H.I.E.L.D. (a United Nations Task Force) only has a handful of Helicarriers in operation, in the Ultimate Universe, S.H.I.E.L.D. is depicted as a United States-operated military organization and is shown to have dozens of carriers, some even replacing retired conventional aircraft carriers like the USS Constellation. The engines that keep the carrier aloft were designed by Tony Stark and were modular enough to be used in a space shuttle by the Ultimate Fantastic Four. These "Ultimate Universe" Helicarriers generally seem to be smaller than the Earth-616 versions, and have a more conventional aircraft carrier shape, but are far more plentiful. In Ultimate Avengers Vs New Ultimates #4, Nick Fury reveals that Hank Pym was the one who conceived and designed the Helicarriers.[8]

Another version of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier appears in the final episode of X-Men Evolution.

A version of the Helicarrier appears in The Super Hero Squad Show, and serves as the base of operations for the Super Hero Squad. It is usually piloted by S.H.I.E.L.D. leader Ms. Marvel, who reluctantly allowed the Squad to move in. Since then, it has been nearly destroyed on two occasions.

The Helicarrier was featured in the Iron Man: Armored Adventures episode "Technovore", but instead of propellers keeping it aloft, it has jet engines (designed by Howard Stark).

The Helicarrier appears in Ultimate Spider-Man. It served as the training area for Spider-Man's team. In "Rise of the Goblin", the Helicarrier is destroyed by Green Goblin and crashes into the harbor. It was also revealed that Power Man, Iron Fist, Nova, and White Tiger lived on the Helicarrier. In "The Man-Wolf", the Helicarrier is rebuilt as the more versatile Tri-Carrier which can divide into three different ships: an Astro-Carrier (a space variant of the Helicarrier), an Aqua-Carrier (an underwater variant of the Helicarrier), and a Strato-Carrier (the central component). In "Ultimate", Green Goblin salvages the Helicarrier as his "Hell-Carrier" as part of his plot to use Goblin Gas to turn everyone into Goblins. Green Goblin self-destructs the Hellcarrier in order to get it out of the Tricarrier's tractor beam. In "Agent Venom", S.H.I.E.L.D. has Agent Venom kept on the Tri-Carrier so that Nick Fury can have the latest young superheroes reside there, only to be moved to the Triskellion in "New Warriors" and "S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy".

The S.H.I.E.L.D. Tri-Carrier appears in the Avengers Assemble episode "Bring On the Bad Guys". The Avengers apprehend Red Skull and have him incarcerated on the Tri-Carrier. It is hijacked by the Cabal. After the Cabal gets away, it is revealed that they stole the special prison that is holding Hyperion.

A Helicarrier makes a flashback appearance in the episode "Scars" on season 2 of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. After being alluded to throughout the season as "Theta Protocol", the episode reveals that Phil Coulson used his position and resources as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to secretly repair and maintain the Helicarrier that was subsequently used by Nick Fury in Avengers: Age of Ultron, which had premiered in the U.S. the week before the episode first aired.

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Hydra, under the guise of S.H.I.E.L.D., plans to initiate Project Insight, in which three Helicarriers linked to spy satellites are poised to kill all people it deems to be threats. These Helicarriers feature several improvements from the one seen in Marvel's The Avengers, most notably the addition of battleship-sized guns and repulsor engines designed by Tony Stark. All three are destroyed when Captain America, Falcon, and Maria Hill reprogram their targeting systems to fire on each other, one of which slams into the Triskelion before exploding and sinking into the Potomac.

In Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), the original Helicarrier is used by Nick Fury and the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. to help the Avengers evacuate citizens of Sokovia from an airborne chunk of a city lifted by Ultron. Fury states that he and a group of friends pulled it out of mothballs, indicating that it was put in storage after the damage it suffered in Marvel's The Avengers was repaired. It was, in fact, secretly repaired by Phil Coulson and his new iteration of S.H.I.E.L.D. under the project name "Theta Protocol".

In Deadpool, produced by 20th Century Fox, a decommissioned Helicarrier, found in a scrapyard, is used as a setting for the final battle. It is not identified onscreen by that name, due to rights issues with Marvel Studios.[11][12]

The Helicarrier is one of the main locations in the game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. The Helicarrier featured is referenced in the opening cinematic by Nick Fury as "S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier UNN Alpha". After the Alpha is damaged from the Masters of Evil's attack, Fury uses Stark Tower as a base for his superhero allies that were recruited to stop Doctor Doom's Masters of Evil. This version also has jet engines replacing propellers.

The Helicarrier appears in the game Ultimate Spider-Man. It appears after Venom is unlocked, and when the player causes enough havoc in free roam to merit flying S.H.I.E.L.D. troopers.

A Helicarrier appears multiple times in the game Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. It is destroyed at the end of the game following the Venom monster's defeat. In the PSP and PS2 version, Spider-Man ends up on the Helicarrier after his fight with the Tinkerer and discovers that the Helicarrier is infested with Symbiotes. After Spider-Man defeats Jackal, the Helicarrier crashes to the ground.

The Helicarrier makes a brief appearance in the game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. In the first cut scene, Captain America escapes from the Helicarrier when he wouldn't support the Superhuman Registration Act. In a later cut scene, the Helicarrier was over the chemical plant owned by Stark Industries in a Pro-Registration plot to get the Anti-Registration forces to join up with them.

The Helicarrier appears in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions in the last Ultimate Universe stage. In it Carnage successfully infects the Hellicarrier with his spawn and causes it to crash land, which Spider-Man must run away from.

The Helicarrier appears in the game Iron Man 2. The preview video for the game reveals that Tony Stark was the one who built it. It is shown as the S.H.I.E.L.D. base throughout the game, but also as a weapon. At one point, it is attacked by A.I.M. forces. However, they are defeated by the combined forces of Iron Man and War Machine. At the end of the game, it is destroyed on purpose when it crashes into the giant Ultimo.